On Sunday evening we joined Ugandan football fans at St Mary’s Stadium, the home of Vipers Football Club, in Kitende on Entebbe Road. Vipers were up against Power Dynamos of Zambia to whom they lost in the CAF Champions League.
Ordinarily I would have let it pass. But these times are not ordinary. In the last 40 years, Ugandan football has come a very long way -eventually for the better. In the 80s and 90s most of the games were played at the Nakivubo War Memorial Stadium in downtown Kampala. It was the home of most clubs because football was mainly a Kampala affair.
Of course there was Mbale for Mbale Heroes, Bugembe the home of Nytil FC and Nile FC. Once in a few seasons you had teams from Masaka, Mbarara and Lira. But Nakivubo was the place that defined the game. In those days local football was the major source of entertainment for the young and old. Digital satellite TV had not yet brought us the option of the European game.
Night music shows and hanging out at bars or joints faced the challenge of insecurity. Many people went indoors early. Football fans thronged the stadium starting at 12:00 noon for a game whose kick-off time was at 4pm. You paid at the entrance but there were a lot of fake tickets.
The place would be full to capacity if you did not go early. The rivalry between the main clubs KCC FC, SC Villa, Express FC, Coffee, Nsambya FC, Nile FC, Nytil FC shook those grounds and made memorable evenings for many. It went into overdrive when the national team the Cranes hosted other countries in the same place.
As time went on you got other entertainment distractions. Music shows, foreign leagues on the now ubiquitous satellite television channels and the development of other sports like basketball came in to rival football.
But before that, the game was lucrative to a certain degree and attracted many wide-eyed officials who looked to pocket and selfishly protect the gains in the game. Successive Federation of Uganda Football Association (Fufa) administrations attracted what at one time were derogatorily termed ‘potato growers.’
They formed cliques and run down the game. The culture of corruption invaded the game. Poor officiation, bribery etc. Privatisation buried clubs like Coffee, Nile, Nytil, Masaka Cooperatives narrowing down the scope of clubs, especially upcountry. Then you had violence in the stands.
If the fans did not like a decision by the referee, they contested it with stones and other projectiles and many were injured. Fans voted with their feet and left for their own sanity and safety. As the game of football grew globally, a lot of what was seen and read about the game brought interest and attention to many. Uganda got football agents who helped many to play in leagues in Europe and South America.
We now qualify for the elusive Africa Cup of Nations. Uganda has got a very good stadium, the Mandela National Stadium in Namboole and other modest venues with facilities for online purchase of tickets, convenient restrooms and cafeteria. Small things like branded replica shirts became part of the game. Fifa and CAF, the managers of the game globally and on the African continent respectively, became strict with the development and adherence to licences, standards, rules and regulations. They even made greater contributions financially and in the form of training to local football associations as incentives to develop the game.
Fufa had to normalise and style up or miss out. The government came in and with time Uganda started on the path of redemption. That is how we eventually got the administrations of Lawrence Mulindwa and now Moses Magogo. They have put up systems and the game has been growing. The government is also putting in a good amount of money. Uganda has many players on the global scene like Denis Onyango.
The recently concluded CHAN tournament which Uganda hosted with Kenya and Tanzania pulled crowds and brought a lot of hope, filling Namboole whenever the Cranes played. The players of this generation are well to do and command respect, unlike the ones that came before them, many of whom resorted to begging and died of alcohol abuse and poverty after retirement. Many companies like Hima Cement, Plascon, CHINT, are associated with clubs as sponsors. Once again, the game has become very lucrative and again birthed negative unintended consequence.
For instance, Fufa’s ‘new format’ which rubbed clubs the wrong way. It would mean the clubs playing more games thus needing more money to run their clubs, many of which are on shoe string budgets. It was full of explanations and rather complicated permutations. Journalists nicknamed it after the mathematical acronym, ‘BODMAS.’ Editor and Columnist Dan Kalinaki called it ‘a solution looking for a problem.’ Mulindwa pulled his Vipers team out of the new format.
Clubs like SC Villa played under protest. Fufa dug in and arrogantly claimed that as the owners of the league they would go ahead. The sponsors reportedly threatened to pull out. The stake holders for whom the game is played once again voted with their feet. Fans stayed away, leaving clubs playing to bare terraces. Many fans as a show of protest thronged Kitende on Sunday to show solidarity with Vipers and Lawrence Mulindwa.
The latter received a rousing welcome when he came into the stadium. Fufa climbed down the high horse and reverted to the old ‘home and away’ format, putting on a brave face that it would ‘use the year to teach the format.’ The cart was put back behind the horse. What you notice about football in Uganda today is the perception that politics seems to have reared its ugly head in the arena. Magogo the boss of Fufa is the husband to the Speaker Anita Among and they are all NRM MPs. Whatever Magogo’s wrongs and good deeds, he does not escape scrutiny fairly or unfairly, with those lenses.
Many people view any success on his side or in the game as a gain for ‘the other side.’ For instance, when Uganda received two extra time minute penalties against South Africa which put Uganda in the group stages during CHAN, several Ugandans claimed they were not justified. Then when Uganda conceded two penalties against Algeria during the World Cup qualifiers that buried Uganda’s chances of qualification, a good number said it was ‘the correct decision!’
I think Fufa needs to go back to the drawing board. There is need for a new constitution that divorces its leadership from those who are actively in partisan politics. It should also make it easier for everyone to contest for leadership to avoid arrogance and complacency. Economic interest of those who run the game should be transparent, to avoid suspicions of conflict. A good country like ours full of young people needs a vibrant good game devoid of detrimental conflicts.